He was not rich, not particularly good-looking, had no
position, and a bad temper. How do I know all these traits of Mr.
Whyte's character, morally and socially? Easily enough; my omniscient
friend found them all out. Mr. Oliver Whyte was the son of a London
tailor, and his father being well off, retired into a private life, and
ultimately went the way of all flesh. His son, finding himself with a
capital income, and a pretty taste for amusement, cut the shop of his
late lamented parent, found out that his family had come over with the
Conqueror--Glanville de Whyte helped to sew the Bayeux tapestry, I
suppose--and graduated at the Frivolity Theatre as a masher. In common
with the other gilded youth of the day, he worshipped at the gas-lit
shrine of Musette, and the goddess, pleased with his incense, left her
other admirers in the lurch, and ran off with fortunate Mr. Whyte. So
far as this goes there is nothing to show why the murder was committed.
Men do not perpetrate crimes for the sake of light o' loves like
Musette, unless, indeed, some wretched youth embezzles money to
buy jewellery for his divinity. The career of Musette, in London, was
simply that of a clever member of the DEMI-MONDE, and, as far as I can
learn, no one was so much in love with her as to commit a crime for her
sake. So far so good; the motive of the crime must be found in
Australia. Whyte had spent nearly all his money in England, and,
consequently, Musette and her lover arrived in Sydney with
comparatively very little cash.
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